This invention relates to a laminate wall structure which can be used in wall sheathing applications. The inventive laminate wall structure is lightweight, easy to fabricate and yet meets governmental wind load wall diaphragm requirements for manufactured housing for transverse wind loading.
Wall structures for homes and buildings in addition to having minimum mechanical strength and moisture resistance, have to be able to meet government regulations with respect to transverse wind loading. Conventional materials used in exterior wall structures are plywood, orientated strand board, fiberboard and a wall structure made of several layers of Kraft paper compressed and adhered together to form a panel. These conventional wall materials tend to be expensive, have a poor moisture resistance, are heavy and difficult to install.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,082,882 discloses a fiberglass reinforced plywood structural sandwich for use as a truck, trailer, van or inter modal container wall which is made up of a fiberglass reinforced plywood plastic unit having one or both facings in the form of a sheet or film of a-high-impact, weather-resistant, low-haze, non-brittle, substantially non-porous acrylic composition.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,418,108 discloses a composite roofing panel made of a fibrous glass board, a layer of foamed-in-place plastic foam and a perforated sheet disposed between the board and the plastic foam. This sheet is made of a material such as paper, wax paper, or a thermoplastic film.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,425,396 discloses an insulated panel made up of a rigid foam layer of a synthetic organic polymeric foam, a protective weathering layer of a thermoplastic sheet material and a flexible backer layer of stereoreticulate material provided between the foam and the weathering layers.
U.S. Pat. No. 5,053,265 discloses a moisture-impervious panel having an intermediate layer of a water-swellable colloidal clay sandwiched between two layers of sheet material such as woven or nonwoven fabric or paperboard.
U.S. Pat. No. 4,088,805 shows a reinforced thermoplastic foam sheet made up of outer layers of low density thermoplastic foam and a thermoplastic film and a central layer having a reinforcing net or net-like structure.
However, to date, there does not exist a lightweight laminate which can be used in exterior wall construction and is inexpensive, easy to install, has a high moisture resistance and meets government requirements with respect to transverse wind-loading. The present invention was arrived at in order to satisfy these needs.
It is an object of the present invention to provide a wall laminate structure which is lightweight, easy to install, inexpensive, has a high moisture resistance and meets building code requirements with respect to transverse wind loading.
This and other objects of the present invention are accomplished by providing a laminate wall structure made up of a first low density layer having a density of from about 0.5 to 3 pounds per cubic foot and a second, reinforcing layer comprising a polymeric fabric, a biaxially oriented polymeric film or a fiberglass reinforced paper or plastic material laminated to the first layer. In another embodiment of the present invention, a third layer comprising a cellulosic material is laminated to the second, reinforcing layer.